Sketchbook CREATE A CONCEPT VEHICLE DESIGN

Transport design guru Bernie Walsh guides us through his process for the creation of a sleek, prize-winning concept ready to ride in the snow

- Bernie Walsh

This workshop comes from my entry into the Agorapode AGPContest, which is a monthly car design concept art challenge run mainly on Instagram. The organisers give you three prompt words to create your vehicle from; in this case they were ‘snow’, ‘coupe’ and ‘retro’.

The competition is judged on creativity, the design and the final presentation, plus how well you stick to the given themes. And at the end of this one, it was my design that came out the winner!

For anyone who wants to work on their vehicle design concept skills and practise the ability to work to a brief, I would absolutely suggest entering these types of art competitions. I do it regularly in between design projects to exercise my little grey cells and to keep improving my sketching skills.

To make these challenges work for you and train your brain to work faster and more creatively, try not to spend too much time on them. Us designers tend to keep redesigning, so keep this as one concept of many and more will flow from it.

Set yourself a timeline. I usually think about it for a day in between work, then quickly gather my references for 20 minutes, otherwise I’ll spend all day looking online. Then start sketching, giving yourself about two hours, by which point you should have a concept.

Remember that the sketch doesn’t need to be in great detail; that will come as you are working on it. This whole process also allows me to explore new skills and images I wouldn’t normally use, like the snow in this sketch. But above all, this should be an enjoyable process!

1. Start sketching and work towards the competition brief